Guelph wrestlers golden at home

Holding on

Rob Massey/Guelph Mercury

Korey Jarvis (right) of the Guelph Wrestling Club grapples with Ali Al-Rekabi of Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club during the men's 96-kilogram class final at the Canada Cup of International Wrestling Saturday night at the Mitchell Athletics Centre. Jarvis won the match.

GUELPH – Guelph wrestlers Korey Jarvis and Ryan Lue, both wearing Canadian singlets, won their weight classes at the Canada Cup of International Wrestling Saturday night at the Mitchell Athletics Centre.

For Jarvis, a silver medalist at last fall’s Commonwealth Games at India, took another step up Saturday, defeating two of his closest rivals to claim his Canada Cup gold.

“This is the first time I’ve won the Canada Cup,” he said. “I was second last year, third the year before, fourth and fifth. I’ve been progressing, that’s good.”

Jarvis used the tournament to put things he’s worked on in practice to use in his bouts.

“I’ve been working on getting my shots off and keeping my elbows in and keeping defensive,” he said. “It worked out well today, I wrestled well.”

Jarvis finished second behind Khetag Pliev at the Canadian senior championships in March. Pliev did not compete at the Canada Cup.

After getting a bye in the first round, Jarvis defeated Manjot Sandhu in the semifinals and Ali Al-Rekabi in the final. Sandhu had finished third at the nationals while Al-Rekabi was fourth.

With six competitors in his weight class, Jarvis spent a lot of the day watching other bouts before his matches.

“There was a lot of waiting,” he said. “I was hoping there’d be more athletes, but I guess with the Olympic year coming up, they’re trying to save funds and not travelling as much. Not many countries came and there was a lot of waiting around, but we still had some good matches.”

The international part of the tournament included three wrestlers from the U.S. and one each from Great Britain and Japan.

For Lue, success could be seen on his face. He rarely goes a bout without getting his face marked. The more cuts, scrapes and bruises, the more he’s wrestled.

“I tend to lead with my head and wrestle with my face a lot,” he said. “When I have a cut or something like that, that’s usually what happens. Battle scars.”

Lue was busier than Jarvis Saturday as he had to win four bouts to claim gold in the men’s 66 kg. class. Jarvis won both of his matches.

“I stayed in my positions and I didn’t make any mistakes,” Lue said of his four wins as he defeated Nick Nelson, Ryley Walker, Jeremy Podlog and Ilya Abelev in the final for the gold. “I’m pretty stingy, but just beating some guy 1-0, 1-0 is not good enough. I’ve got to be more dominant out there. There’s a lot more to work on.”

In the gold-medal match, Lue twice pushed Abelev out of bounds – once in each round – for the win.

“I just felt he wasn’t wrestling me,” Lue said. “I felt I was physically stronger than him out there, so I just decided to use what I had and just get the win.”

The U of G gym has been good to Lue this year. He also won his weight class at the Guelph Open in January.

“I’m undefeated in Guelph right now,” he said. “I like wrestling in front of the hometown crowd. No one wants to lose on home turf, so I try to get the W for everyone.”

“If we put people in the finals, we’re winning those finals,” Lue said. “That’s the way it should always be.”

Huynh defeated Lindsay Prickett in the semifinals in a match that featured the top two wrestlers in the country in that weight class. Huynh also defeated Jade Papke in the first round on her way to gold. An opening-round loss put competitors out of contention for gold.

Cruz Manning won two bouts before falling to eventual silver medalist Mike Asselstine in the men’s 60 kg. semifinals.

Alison Leslie lost to Justine Bouchard in the women’s 67 kg. semifinals. Bouchard would win silver.